Dear colleagues, I work for the Internet Society but this is very definitely not an Internet Society opinion. I write instead as someone who served as a liaison to a nomcom as well as someone who was on a liaison-appointing body. On Wed, Sep 28, 2022 at 07:31:34PM -0400, John C Klensin wrote:
either or both will be made public beyond the Chair and Voting Members who have an obligation of confidentiality.
My understanding of my role as a liaison when I was one, and my reading of the relevant RFCs at least at the time, was absolutely that the liaison had exactly the same obligations with respect to confidentiality as any voting member. I recall everyone involved at the time as agreeing with such an obligation, as well. So whatever the distinction might once have been, at least in my experience there was no such distinction except in the capacity of voting or not voting in the decisions, and in being aware of that distinction and being deferential towards it. When I was on the IAB, moreover, we definitely did _not_ believe that the liaison had a responsibility for information flow back to us. We believed that the liaisons were a conduit of the views and understanding of the IAB with respect to needs and so forth in the community. The liaison also acted as an effective way of getting questions back to the IAB if they needed answering. But I recall every liaison in my experience being extremely careful not to have information flowing from the nomcom to the IAB. I hope that is a useful perspective. Best regards, A -- Andrew Sullivan ajs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
